Tuesday, April 20, 2010

It was my birthday that we decided to eat something special at Georgetown, and I decided to bring my wife to this famous The Sire Museum Restaurant which featured in famous food blog like penangtuapui.com and lingzie.com (since she has been consistently remind me about this restaurant. :P).

Now, some story on the restaurant. The place is actually owned by the Yap's family where it is started off as a museum which telling the story of the Yap's family. It is from here that I learned about the history of the famous BHL bank in Penang. I'm not sure who are the owner of the restaurant but it is a 2 in 1 concept which means it is a restaurant at the front part of the building and a museum at the rear of the building.

As we don't really know where it is located, we really have to depends on the information on the web, but seriously I didn't pay attention to the info as I was way too confident with my Garmin Nuvi255W and MFM free map. It shows that I had make a big mistake, after our visit to Kuan Yin Temple, we went into the car and switch on the GPS, I type in "The Sire", none......=.="

So, with no other choice, I tried my luck by driving around the area as it should be around (tipped by my friend). After turn one and two, as we drive along King Street towards the new Great Eastern building, tada, there it is The Sire Museum Restaurant on our right. It is a bit tough to find parking lot at lunch time but maybe it is my birthday, there is one empty slot just near the restaurant. So I park and feed the meter for 1 and a half hour. Then we proceed to the restaurant.

So, this is what it looks like at the outside, there are actually one servant waiting outside to open the door for you. Usually when this happens, you'll know that the food is not going to be cheap.

The operation hours spell out clearly beside the entrance of the restaurant, together with the gred of the restaurant. Gred A shows that this is a clean and nice place. Walk into the restaurant you'll first pass through the bar area with a few tables, then you'll need to pass through a small lane into the main restaurant area, where you'll be served lunch or dinner.

The bar at the main restaurant area, you can see that there are plenty of selections available. They do offer some cocktail in the menu.

The dining table are well placed and decorate. Each table has a fresh orchid (must be not cheap) and an oil lamp to improve the ambience.

There are a few sitting at the first floor as well.

Another side of the restaurant, you can see there is a waiter guarding the entrance to the museum. You are not allowed to take photograph in the museum. So what I can say is, it worth to pay a visit to the museum eventhough you have no intention to dine at the restaurant.

The plaque which means "the south sun" in mandarin.

The upper floor is the museum area as well, if I'm not mistaken, the museum has 4 floor of display.

Plants at one of the side of the restaurant, the design of the restaurant is really carefully taken care of. They even building a nice cabinet to actually semi-hide the air cooler in it at the side of the bar. So, if you don't really pay attention, you can't even notice there is an air cooler there.

Close up at the orchid.

The oil lamp.

Toothpick holder.

Apple juice, it is not cheap.

Red guava freeze.

Appertizer - French onion soup. When it is served, I a bit hesitate to taste it as it is not really looking good. But after the first few sip, when your tongue start to get use to it, you'll start to appreciate it.

Close up on the toast bread in the middle of the soup. There are butter taste when you bite the bread, which means that it is well toast to golden color together with butter on it, nice!

Close look at the dining table, so you can see that it is not a one whole piece of the table top, there is actually some space in between the wood pieces, so becareful if you are placing your tiny car keys or any tiny stuff on the table, especially don't hold your iphone in vertical and place it on the table as support. You have been warned. :P

Forgot what is this, wife ordered grilled fish dishes, it comes with some melted butter on top. It looks black because my PS skill is too bad, over contrast on the photo. :P

It actually taste nice and the portion is huge (for our appetite).

I like prawn, so I ordered a big prawn (lobster) pasta. The baby lobster is grilled to perfection and served together with the pasta and tomato based sauce. I felt the lobster meat is a bit too tender as some part it is really hard to cut and chew.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

2nd April 2010 - My thirty second birthday, both me and my wife took leave to enjoy a carefree day and have a simple and nice celebration. Early in the morning, we started our journey by having a nice breakfast. At first I did thinking of the normal coffee shop, but the weather is so hot that and I don't want to sweat like a waterfall early in the morning. Then, I was thinking of Old Town, but don't really want to have breakfast there.

Hmm......so left the choices of McD Autocity or Seven Village Restaurant. Well, McD breakfast is nice, but we decided to try the breakfast at Seven Village Restaurant. So, I ordered toast bread, Milo hot and soft boiled eggs; wife ordered Milo ice, "Guang Jiang" and the famous "Koay Teow Th'ng".

The hot milo.

The Fire and Ice Milo...

咸蛋超人! Nice......and it is cheap! Oh ya, they use the Omega egg as well.

Toast bread, nice!

"Guang Jiang", nice......and I ordered 2, since the plate is so empty, so they use the chili sauce to write a Chinese character seven on the plate, nice decoration. After food, time to go for a simple Heritage trip at Georgetown!